Saadawi, Ahmed
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1973- ) Iraqi screenwriter, poet, documentary film maker and author; he is of sf interest for Farankanstayin fi Baghdad ["Frankenstein in Baghdad"] (2013; trans Jonathan Wright as Frankenstein in Baghdad 2018), set in 2005 during the American occupation of Iraq. A Baghdad merchant sews together the body parts of victims of the violence that spring; this spatchcocked corpse is soon possessed by the recently dead soul of a security guard (see Fantastika; Frankenstein Monster; Gothic SF). Initially known as "the nameless", but then dubbed Whatsitsname, it begins to take revenge on those who killed the dead humans whose shattered parts have now been sutured together. The surreal acerbity of Saadawi's tale openly asks for it to be read as an anatomy – in this case punningly literal – of contemporary Iraq. [JC]
Ahmed Saadawi
born Iraq: 1973
works (selected)
- Farankanstayin fi Baghdad ["Frankenstein in Baghdad"] (Cologne, Germany: Al Kamel Publishing, 2013) [binding unknown/]
- Frankenstein in Baghdad (New York: Penguin Books, 2018) [trans by Jonathan Wright of the above: pb/]
links
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